It is not bad contractors.
It is not cheap materials.
It is renovating the wrong thing first.
I saw this happen in a townhouse in Columbus, Ohio. The owner spent thousands remodeling a kitchen that looked great on photos. Two months later, moisture from an old window frame warped the new cabinets. Money gone. Stress doubled.
Good renovation starts with boring stuff. Water paths. Air flow. Drainage. Structural basics. The things you do not post online.
The smartest renovation projects work from the outside in and from problems to aesthetics. Fix what can damage everything else first. Then make it beautiful.
If you are planning upgrades, ask one question before anything else:
What will ruin this space if I ignore it?
That answer should always come first